SICT Inaugurates Chontalpa-Entronque Choapas-Ocozocoautla Stretch

The Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport (SICT) inaugurated the Chontalpa-Entronque Choapas-Ocozocoautla stretch, which connects Tabasco, Veracruz and Chiapas and represents a MX$1.6 billion (US$89 million) investment. 

The stretch is 100km shorter than the previous route, shortening transportation time from one hour to 15 minutes. SICT highlighted that the project was abandoned in 2011 but the ministry financed its continuation and completion with the Federation Expenditure Budget in June 2019. The construction also created 5,100 direct jobs and 20,180 indirect jobs in the municipalities of Huimanguillo, Chontalpa and La Esperanza, according to SICT. The project will benefit 179,000 inhabitants in Mexico’s southeast. SICT praised the collaboration of the three states, municipal authorities and the population of the area in the completion of this project. 

The Minister of Interior (SEGOB) Adán Augusto López Hernández and the Minister of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT) Jorge Nuño Lara attended the inauguration of the stretch. Chiapas’ Governor Rutilio Escandón, Veracruz’s Governor Cuitláhuac García and Tabasco’s Governor Carlos Manuel Merino also attended the inauguration. 

The toll-free federal highway is Mexico’s 187th and aims to allow for faster transportation, reduce travel times and allow for greater physical and operational security. The highway will improve the economic, touristic, commercial and social development of the region.

The construction covered 23.3 kilometers and involved two traffic lanes, five bridges, two vehicular underpasses and two junctions that will serve 6,900 vehicles. “Imagine everything that is going to detonate in development and in progress because it will allow us to be closer to Veracruz, Tabasco, Chiapas, to do business, sell more quickly,” said Escandón via a SICT press release.

The Federal Government is also working on another project in Veracruz, the Transisthmic Corridor, which will connect the port of Salinas Cruz in Oaxaca with the Coatzacoalcos port, in Veracruz through a 303-kilometer strip of land. The project has raised over US$5 billion in public investment and over US$50 billion of private resources that will be destined for the industrial corridor and industrial parks, as reported by MBN. 

“The [Transisthmic Corridor] project will provide a decisive boost to the development of the Isthmus, the Mexican southeast and the country’s economy as general, since it will have the capacity to transport 1.4 million containers annually, end-to-end in less than six hours, cheaper and faster than the Panama Canal,” said Eduardo Romero, Coordinator for the Development and Strategy of the Industrial Productive Sector and Welfare.